Organizing your home & life for easier access to your belongings, eye appeasing rooms, & overall sanctification with yourself. We will walk you through the best type of organizing style for your family and you. We will also help guide you to forming the habits to staying organized!

May 7 Baby Series - Baby Items In The Kitchen

The kitchen is going to host a lot of your newborn baby supplies. Such as breast milk bags, bottles, all bottle supplies, new and more efficient bottle drying racks, and baby food or utensils you have already collected. Most people’s kitchen, and this goes for my kitchen as well, is already full. There just never seems to be enough space in your kitchen for all the gadgets, utensils, plates, and food you must keep there.

As with any organization project you decide to tackle there are several ways you can organize. I always go on the rule of thumb that you should try the style that best speaks to your current style and budget. To help get the juices flowing on how to rearrange/ organize your kitchen for baby I will run down a few different tips here for just the baby items. If you are looking to go ahead and do your entire kitchen at the same time checkout the Kitchen Basics blog on the last Sunday of the month of May.

Best way to start any project is to first declutter in my opinion. Decluttering allows you to free up space and generally cleanse your home. A good example of an item to possible toss would be if you had both a toaster oven and a toaster. The toaster oven in my opinion does so much more and still toast beard; whereas, the toaster can only toast beard. This should be completely up to you and what your family uses. Rule of thumb; unless it is for parties and holidays then anything only used once should be a safe bet to toss.

1) One Cabinet Works

The one cabinet baby organization is great for those who do not want extra items crowding their counter or pantry space. This is the style I used with my son since we did not have a lot of counter space. Items you may want to purchase to keep this cabinet organized are fabric drawer/boxes, medium glass jar, small glass jar, and a small drying rack. I recommend getting two fabric drawers for items like breast milk bags, pump equipment, bibs, or if you went with doctor brown bottles then the equipment for those bottles. The medium glass jar (an old spaghetti jar works great) or any other slender and tall container will host the bottle nipples and pacifiers.

The small glass jar or even a cup can help host your baby’s utensils and the dish rack will hold the different kid plates. I received and bought several different types of kid plates, so they do not all stack nicely on top of each other. The dish rack takes out the need for them to stack and still allows you to see all the different types you have. One of the best things about this style is you do not have to have all of the stuff. You can start with just your cabinet and slowly add in the organizing equipment as you are able to.

2) Readily Available Style

Side tip: Use washi tape to label the sizes nipples in the jar this way you can change out the labels once your baby needs a new size.

For my lifers who like to have items you use more frequently readily available this style may be for you. That is if you have enough counter space and do not mind new items being on your counter. This style will require a drawer storage cabinet, a fabric box, and a wall hook. The storage cabinet will need to be large enough for your items to fit, but small enough it is not taking your kitchen counter over. This item will be used for items like bottle equipment, pump equipment, breast milk bags, and other small items. The fabric box can store your bottles and other large items that would not fit in the storage bin. Now the wall hook can also be a fridge hook and can be used to store the baby’s bibs. When laying out your supplies keep in mind ease of access is the most important key to staying organized. This goes double for my lifers who are more visual in their organization and life structure.

3) Throw it in the Pantry

Last style will be for my lifers with a huge pantry or those who would just rather keep all things there. This style will combine items from both the top styles previously mentioned. So, all you will need to do is decide which storage items work best for you and clear a small space in your pantry to put your baby stuff in. The only other trick you can do in the pantry that you cannot in a cabinet or on the counter is use an over the door shoe organizer. This can store countless items like utensils, bottles, breast milk bags, bibs, etc.

Final Thoughts

I do strongly suggest that you only pick one style to organizer your newborn’s items. This suggestion goes back to the ease of access. Both when putting away the items and taking them out. The last thing you are going to want is to have your bottle supplies scattered all across your kitchen. This is especially important at 2:00am when your loving baby wakes up hungry and you go stumbling into the kitchen to get a bottle together.

As always organizing is not a science that can be perfectly picked for each project. You may have to try a few different styles and techniques before deciding which style works best for you. There are a ton of organizing bins and other such equipment that can also help. Get creative with items you see and make it work for your family and you.